Thailand leads Southeast Asia in mobile banking application usage

Based on this regional study, 97 % of Thai consumers said they use mobile banking applications at least once a week or more. This is followed by Vietnam (95%) and Indonesia (90%).

On average, almost nine in 10 Southeast Asian consumers (89%) use mobile banking applications at least once a week. Mobile banking applications continue to be the preferred method of online banking across all surveyed markets. Thailand ranks first, with 96 % of consumers favouring banking applications over websites, followed closely by Indonesia (95%) and Vietnam (92%).

Punnamas Vichitkulwongsa, Country Manager for Visa Thailand, said: " Digital payments become a part of everyday life for consumers across Southeast Asia, as they have more ways to pay with contactless cards, smartphones, and QR codes. We also continue to see digital payments being increasingly embraced across all spectrums of businesses, from local food stalls to mass public transportation operators. Visa is committed to working with various stakeholders in the payments ecosystem to deliver a seamless digital payments experience that is fast, convenient, and secure for everyone and everywhere."

The more digital payments are used by consumers across the region, the less amount of cash they carry. The study shows that 46 per cent of Southeast Asian consumers have carried less cash compared to the previous year, led by Vietnam (56%), Malaysia (49%), and Thailand (47%). The top reasons for carrying less cash are 1) using more contactless digital payments, 2) more places accepting digital payments, and 3) concerns about cash being lost or stolen.

Generative AI (Gen AI) is also gaining recognition among Southeast Asian consumers, with 75 % having heard of the concept or knowing what it is. For Gen AI in banking applications, one-third of Southeast Asian consumers (32%) have interacted with Gen AI, while 38 % are aware of but have yet to interact with it. Across consumer segments, affluent consumers (51%) are better aware of Gen AI compared to the mass segment (37%).

More interestingly, apart from the high awareness rate, the top three services consumers in the region are looking for from Gen AI in banking are 1) fraud detection or being alerted of possible fraudulent transactions (79%), 2) customer interaction for product and service inquiries (73%), and 3) personalized financial products recommendations (71%).

Real-time payments (RTP) are also rapidly expanding, with 76 % of Southeast Asian consumers aware of the method and 47 % having used RTP for fund transfers. Thailand ranked as the top in the region in RTP usage frequency, with 86 % of respondents making RTP transactions at least once a week, followed by Vietnam (84%) and Indonesia (69%).

Despite high awareness and adoption rates, there are some reservations among Southeast Asian consumers towards using RTP. The top concerns for RTP adoption are security risk (44%), preference to apply other digital payment methods e.g., credit cards/debit cards (42%), and lack of understanding (41%).